MOST STUDENTS HAVE SHOTS

The number of students being kept out of Palm Beach County schools because they don't have proper immunizations had dropped to less than 100 on Friday, one month after schools opened.

More than 5,000 students didn't have proof they received the required shots when school opened on Aug. 16. State law says that without the proper shots or an exemption, students must be excluded from school.

The number has dropped steadily since then as district and health officials conducted an all-out effort to get students in compliance. To enter kindergarten, students must be vaccinated against polio, measles/mumps/rubella and tetanus/diphtheria. Seventh-graders must have their second measles shot, a booster for tetanus/diphtheria and they must have begun the three-shot hepatitis B series.

District officials issued a report on Friday showing 77 students still without the vaccinations, but some schools had not supplied the central office with updated figures.

District officials threatened last month to give the names of parents whose children remain out of school due to lack of immunizations to the State Attorney's Office for potential prosecution. To date, no cases have been forwarded to prosecutors, the State Attorney's Office said.

"They have to follow the statutes very carefully," said Bernard Shulman, ex-deputy superintendent, now working for the State Attorney's Office. "If the parent knows that the child is out of school and condones it, then the parent is responsible," he said. "You have to have the evidence to present to the judge that the parent is absolutely condoning it."